Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 459
In Beihai Town, in the dormitory of the power plant at the foot of the east bank of the Xila River, two cross-travelers with a teenage age difference were drinking and chatting.The snowflakes flying outside the house covered the hills in the distance. If you don’t go out and sit in front of the window to drink tea and watch the snow scene, it can be regarded as a great pleasure in winter.

On the stove in the corner of the house, the kettle creaked as it was being burned.There were two steamed buns baking on the edge of the stove, exuding a burnt aroma.

"I really don't understand. Why do you always like to use a coal stove to boil water if you don't need an electric kettle?"

The speaker was a young man in his early thirties. He had a pair of silkworm-like eyebrows, single eyelids, a high nose bridge, a Chinese character face, and a northern accent.

"Hey, don't you understand? This is nostalgia. When you reach my age, you will often think about your childhood." Sitting opposite the young man is a middle-aged man in his 40s, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. Looks like a leader.But it was hot in the house from the drinking, so he took off his coat and was only wearing underwear and a blue sweater.

In the middle of the two is a small table, besides a bottle of white wine, there are also peanuts, pork head meat, and a bowl of crispy pheasant stewed roe deer meat.

Hearing what the middle-aged man said, the young man curled his lips, showing a look of disapproval.However, what he didn't notice was that the middle-aged man raised his eyes and glanced at him, and then quickly looked elsewhere.

"Have you heard? That guy left again, and drove away the Jinglei."

"Well, I went to Lao Yu's place the day before yesterday, and I heard from him. He said he was going to buy soybeans, but I don't think so."

"Oh? What do you say?"

"I heard from the people at Whale Harbor that he took away a regiment and a guard battalion." After saying that, the middle-aged man got up and walked to the stove, flipped the steamed buns, then sat back in the chair, toasted with the young People touched one.

"Have you figured it out? Where are you going?" The middle-aged man picked up a few peanuts and chewed them leisurely.

"Three surnames."

"En." The middle-aged man thought for a while, nodded and said, "Fatty Chen and Lao Yu are there, I will go to work. By the way, how is your chat with Xiaobai?"

"The boy only goes to work and sleeps, and when he comes back, he only eats and plays games. I hinted to him twice, but he didn't respond. Hey, I'm so anxious."

The middle-aged man took a sip of his wine, nodded and said, "This matter can't be rushed, it has to be taken slowly."

The young man had already drank more than two taels of baijiu, and his face had already started to turn red due to the temperature in the room.He looked at the middle-aged man and said, "Still slow? If he slows down, he will be the emperor!"

The corner of the middle-aged man's mouth moved slightly, raised his glass and touched the other party again, raised his hand and pressed the other's shoulder, and said softly word by word: "I told you this, and I will say it for the last time today, you will remember it for me There are eight skills for mortals and ministers to achieve Taoism, sharing the same bed, being next to each other, father and brother, raising disasters, people's cuteness, popular, Weiqiang, and Sifang. The most important of them are Minmeng, Weiqiang, and Sifang. No benefit is not enough To move people's hearts, without prestige, there can be no momentum, without four directions, there can be no obedience!"

The young man smiled and said, "It's your Han Feizi theory again, I understand. But."

"In the army, we must have talents, and we can't rely on others alone, we have to master the gun." The middle-aged man interrupted in a low voice: "The end of the year is coming, remember, we must find a way to get more "seeds." "Come back. Now the materials are under the control of his dog leg, and no one can get them out without his orders. Xiaobai, you continue to do his work, the united front, you have to make more friends and enemies. Very few."

"I understand, but if his parents leave, we will lose a card."

"Isn't his wife still alive? I guess the old couple won't be able to leave for a while." After finishing speaking, the middle-aged man showed a cold look, and said to the young man, "Hmph, just wait and see, I have to break up when I go back this time." It made them want to return home!"

In the passage quoted earlier, the middle-aged man actually missed a word. Perhaps it was because the word was not pleasant to listen to, so he ignored it.

Those words came out of "Han Feizi", called "Eight Traitors".

"Hurry up, hurry up! Keep up!"

"Master, where are we going?"

"Shut up! You'll know when you get there."

On November 1789, 11, that is, October 30th, 54th year of Qianlong, early in the morning, more than 500 disaster victims from all over Hebei were tied with grass ropes on the post road from Tianjin to Dagukou. , in a group of ten people, rushing on the road like a swarm, the sparse crowd stretched out for more than a mile like a long wriggling worm.

Those in charge of escorting these people were green battalion soldiers transferred from Gu'an to support Tianjin's city defense.Although it is hard work to do this kind of errand in cold weather, for them, not having to go to the battlefield is better than anything else.

Following the order of the imperial envoy, from the Tianjin Dao Yamen to the surrounding counties, the government system was running at full speed, and with the cooperation of the Green Camp, it took only two days to collect thousands of people from inside and outside the city.

Fortunately for the people in the government, the North Sea pirates moored outside Dagukou are not "picky eaters", they want all men, women and children.If it were only for the young and able-bodied, no matter what, they would not be able to gather these people.

So inside and outside the city, regardless of whether it is those who build shacks or beg along the street, as long as they are dressed in rags, have no proof of security, and no guides, no matter men, women, old or young, monks or Taoists, they will all be taken away.These people were brought to gather outside the east gate of Tianjin City. As long as there were enough 500 people, they would be bundled into a string by Gu'an soldiers and escorted to Dagukou.

At the tail of the team, Zhang Bingwen, who was full of scars, was using a willow branch as a crutch; a few willow branches were sandwiched between the broken bones on his left arm, used as a splint, and hung around his neck with a straw rope.Beside him was his eight-year-old son who was supporting him as he limped forward, and behind him was his wife with a big belly holding her daughter.

In the end, Zhang Bingwen still failed to get his share of Baoju's money.During the beating that day, after Zhang Bingwen broke an arm and a leg, he finally couldn't bear the pain and yelled twice. Now all the previous efforts were in vain.

As soon as he yelled at that time, the crowd immediately started booing, and then dispersed; and those who beat him stopped under the stop of the gangster leader Liu Ye.Not to mention a beating in vain, the wound medicine fee has to be paid by oneself.

Fortunately, there was a businessman in the crowd who was watching the excitement. Seeing that Zhang Bingwen's family was pitiful, he gave his wife a bunch of money to treat her injuries.How can Zhang Bingwen be willing to go to the pharmacy, the whole family is still hungry.So I found a wandering doctor on the side of the road, spent [-] Wen on some trauma medicine, and made do with a pack.

"I Shuo (said) Lord, can we rest for a while? This is more than 30 miles away from Dagu." In the team, the gangster Jin San smiled at the escorting soldiers. A bow.

"Go five miles and rest. Hurry up!"

"Come on! Thank you."

Because the number of victims was not enough, the government issued an order to all Lijia inside and outside the city to use gangsters to make up the number.So Jin Sanyi and his gang were called together by the sixth master to draw a "life and death lottery", and they won the "first lottery", and he was the first one.

Although Jin San felt very unlucky, this was not to "slaughter a white goose" and lose his head after all.It's just that Jin San, who is a landlubber, is still a little afraid of going out to sea by boat; and thinking that he may never return to Tianjin in the future, he is full of worries about the future.

The group of people walked forward for about five li, and suddenly saw smoke and dust billowing on the road to the east, as if a large group of people was coming.The leader of the team in front of the team rushed to the back and shouted: "Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

When the refugees and escort soldiers all exited the official road and entered the fields beside the road, when they didn't know what happened, they saw a few sturdy armored soldiers riding on horseback, holding bright yellow pennants with red flames and gilded edges, galloping And pass.

Not long after, the big gong that cleared the way rang out, and a large group of cavalry armored soldiers with various guards of honor came over, and the formation was extremely strict.

At this moment, I heard the chief opponent's soldiers say: "Let all of them kneel down! Quick! This is the imperial envoy!"

Following the scolding of the soldiers, five hundred men, women, old and children all knelt on the icy ground, trembling, not daring to breathe.

In this long procession of various colors, the leader is a golden flying tiger flag, followed by a sedan chair with a red cover, red eaves, and red curtains carrying the Wang Ming flag, surrounded by hundreds of people with muskets on their shoulders. The cavalry, all of them have colorful tassels on their crotch horses, which are very gorgeous.

Next is the brigade holding avoidance cards, silence cards, dozens of tiger head cards, yellow umbrellas, golden fans, soldier fists, wild goose feathers, knives, beasts, swords, yellow sticks, paulownia sticks, lances, guns and flags of various colors The people and horses were dazzled by all the refugees and the soldiers of the green battalion.

After the front group of people had almost passed by, three silver curtains and soap covers appeared in the team one after another; behind each set of soap covers was a large green woolen sedan chair surrounded by several horse-riding guards.And behind the imperial envoy, there were seven or eight tightly covered carriages.

Needless to say, He Shen sat in the first sedan chair, and Liu Yong and Fu Chang'an sat in the next two sedan chairs.As for those carriages, it was a gift from Macartney to Qianlong.

The troops of the brigade moved very fast, and after the adjourned horse team passed by, the general of the green battalion asked them to get up and continue on their way.

Zhang Bingwen walked more and more slowly because of his injury, so the escorting soldiers let the frantic Jin San and another gangster carry him on the way.Now Jin San was exhausted to death, scolding Zhang Bingwen along the way, and didn't shut up until he saw the big boat in the distance at Dagukou.

Three days ago, under the threat of the North Navy's strong ships and guns, Qianlong, who was sick, had no choice but to agree to the conditions of the North Navy, 50 shi of soybeans and [-] refugees within half a year.

After the edict was issued, Prince Jia went to the Taimiao to plead guilty on Qianlong's behalf.Shame!The dignified Qing Dynasty was actually threatened by a group of rebels.The ancestral land cannot be kept aside, and now even the door of the house is broken in.

It was only then that Qianlong and his son realized that the Wanli Coastal Defense of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was like a piece of window paper in front of Beihai Town, which could be poked and broken at any time.And the most embarrassing thing is that the English people saw the whole incident.

Fortunately, Beihai Town proposed a two-year truce, so that Qianlong and his son could feel that they could catch their breath so that the whole army could fight again without dying.Right now, He Shen, Fu Chang'an, and Liu Yong have just returned from signing the agreement at Chaoyin Temple, and they are all suffocated. No one pays attention to the group of people kneeling on the side of the road in the cold weather.

In the car, Liu Quan, who was standing by the side, took out his pocket watch, looked at it, and reminded: "Master, it's time to take medicine."

After finishing speaking, he took out a white bottle from his body, and carefully poured out a yellow and green pill from it.He Shen took the medicine, hesitated for a moment, then raised his neck and put it in his mouth, took the water glass and took a sip.

This is the medicine he asked Liu Quan to obtain from the Jinglei.The name of the drug is very awkward, what is it called "minocycline hydrochloride".

At that time, when Liu Quan followed Qiao Renjie on the boat, he thought it was made by mixing salt, old vinegar and rice. He wondered how could it be called medicine?It's not as good as those "Dali Pills" sold by Tianqiao.

When Zhao Xin saw Liu Quan's expression, he knew that he was thinking about it, so he even explained and taught him a lesson.Liu Quan dared to act wild in front of others, relying on He Shen to be domineering, but in front of Zhao Xin, he was as honest as a rabbit.

What Zhao Xin said was very straightforward, if I killed your He Zhongtang, it would be easy to kill him, just log in, grab him and shoot him, there is no need to engage in those plots.He knows in his heart what dirty things your master has done to Beihai Town, but he can't do it any more. If I find some people from the rivers and lakes to go to Beihai Town to make trouble, I will go directly to Shichahai Mansion to ask him to settle the score.

Liu Quan was terrified by what he said, and finally took the white medicine bottle and two rectangular gift boxes that Zhao Xin gave him, and returned to the shore in a daze.

When the master and servant met at night, they first opened the gift box, and were surprised to find that it was filled with ginseng as thick as radishes, and the beards were dense and long.A total of twenty.

There is also a letter in the box, written by Zhao Xin himself to He Shen, which said three things:

First, if those things that cannot be brought to the table are repeated, Zhao Xin will go to Beijing to find Heshen to settle the ledger.

Second, the share of ginseng will be [-] catties in the next two years.The reason why there are so few is because your imperial court has always pursued "only digging and not planting" ginseng, which has led to a sharp decline in the output of special and first-class ginseng in various places.As for the twenty ginseng in the box, they were grown (bought) by Beihai Town himself, and Mr. He might as well try the effect.

Thirdly, since Huaniao Island has been abandoned for more than a year, starting next year, if you want to buy again, the location will be changed to the south of Jeju Island.

He Shen was noncommittal after reading the letter, and then burned the letter to ashes.He knew that Zhao Xin's threat was real, but he didn't know what method the other party would use.

As for the medicine bottle, unscrew the lid, and inside are cylindrical pills, yellow and green, fifty pills in total.He Shen observed carefully with the light, and found that the shell was actually transparent and could be pulled out, and inside were yellow-brown particles of the same size.

Can this cure "red bayberry sore"?
Facing He Shen's question, Liu Quan nodded affirmatively, saying that Qiao Renjie and the British who went with him both gave this kind of medicine.Both the doctor on the ship and Zhao Xin said, take two pills of this medicine for the first time, and then take one pill every six hours, and it will be fine in half a month.

It should be noted that apart from "red bayberry sore", this medicine can also treat other acne, dysentery, typhoid fever, toxic heat, etc., but it must not be given to pregnant women; if children eat it, their teeth will turn yellow.

He Shen's eyes widened when he heard this, and he thought that if it could cure so many diseases, wouldn't it be a magic medicine!

Even so, He Shen still didn't dare to eat it directly.He first asked Liu Quan to find a dog to try, and found that there was nothing wrong with it; then he found a subordinate who was having a stomachache to try, and after a long time, he really got better.

Now He Shen believed most of it, thinking of Zhao Xin's words threatening Liu Quan and his itchy and painful affected area, he gritted his teeth and took two pills.Unexpectedly, when I woke up the next day, I found that I was much better, so I was relieved, and according to Zhao Xin's instructions, I took one pill every six hours.It has been two days now, and the illness that has tortured He Shen for many years has been relieved a lot, which makes him feel very relieved.

Although Beihai Town is the enemy of life and death with the imperial court, there are still a lot of good things!Thinking of his unspeakable secrets being resolved, He Shen's mood, which was originally depressed due to the negotiation results, finally improved, and he was able to sleep soundly on the way back to the capital.

Because the time limit given by Beihai Town was only half a year, Qianlong's edict had already been sent to Sichuan and Huguang before the group returned to the capital.

Just in this winter, groups of trackers gathered outside the city of Chongqing were escorted by the government to board the Chuchuan fleet; those refugees hiding in the old forests of Nanba and Nanshan were lured out of the mountains by various means by the government. Traveling eastward along the Yangtze River or by land, he embarked on the journey to Beihai Town.

So far, in the 54th year of Qianlong's campaign to buy soybeans for grinding tofu, Beihai Town finally came to Dagukou to deter the Qing court, thereby realizing the plan to transfer refugee trackers from Sichuan on a large scale in a short period of time.

And these people also laid a solid foundation for Beihai Town's cross-sea eastward advance two years later.

　Those guys who think that penicillin can only be used, you are OUT.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)